International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access
ISSN: 2329-9096
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2329-9096
+44 1300 500008
Segundo Mesa Castillo
Psychiatric Hospital of Havana, Cuba
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Int J Phys Med Rehabil
Introduction: There is increasing evidences that favor the prenatal beginning of schizophrenia. These evidences point toward intrauterine environmental factors that act specifically during the second pregnancy trimester producing a direct damage to the brain of the fetus. The current available technology doesn't allow observing what is happening at cellular level since the human brain is not exposed to a direct analysis in that stage of the life in subjects at high risk of developing schizophrenia. Aim & Method: In 1977, we began a direct electron microscopic research of the brain of fetuses at high risk from schizophrenic mothers in order to finding differences at cellular level in relation to controls. Results: In these studies, we have observed within the nuclei of neurons the presence of complete and incomplete viral particles that reacted in positive form with antibodies to herpes simplex hominis type I [HSV1] virus, and mitochondria alterations. Conclusion: The importance of these findings can have practical applications in the prevention of the illness keeping in mind its direct relation to the aetiology and physiopathology of schizophrenia. A study of amniotic fluid cells in women at risk of having a schizophrenic offspring was also considered. Of being observed the same alterations that those observed previously in the cells of the brain of the studied fetuses, it would intend to these women in risk of having a schizophrenia descendant; and from the previous information of the results, the voluntary medical interruption of the pregnancy or an early anti HSV1 viral treatment can be used as a preventive measure for the later development of the illness.
Email: segundo@infomed.sld.cu